Gulf oil spill: Photos from June 20, 2010

View full size(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Airboat pilot Michael Fabian displays oil on a glove near oiled marsh grass in Barataria Bay on the coast of Louisiana, Sunday, June 20, 2010.

Gulf oil spill news from June 20, 2010:

President Barack Obama's
chief of staff is warning about what might happen if Republicans -- who
have defended BP over the Gulf oil spill -- were to run Congress after
the fall election. Rahm Emanuel told ABC's "This Week" that the GOP
philosophy is to paint BP as the victim. He said Obama will make clear
to voters the fundamental differences in how each party would govern.
Emanuel said GOP lawmakers and candidates are attacking the
administration for demanding that BP set up a $20 billion compensation
fund. Last week, Rep. Joe Barton apologized to BP for what he called a
White House "shakedown." The Texas Republican later stepped back from
those remarks.

Newly released internal
documents show BP PLC estimated 4.2 million gallons of oil a day could
gush from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico if all equipment
restricting the flow was removed and company models were wrong.
Democratic Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey released the documents
Sunday showing BP said in a worst-case scenario the leak could gush
between 2.3 million and 4.2 million gallons of oil per day. The current
worst-case estimate of what's leaking is 2.5 million gallons a day. The
documents anticipate a scenario where the blowout preventer and other
equipment on the sea floor were removed, which was never done. BP
spokesman Tony Odone said the documents were submitted to Congress
before BP America President Lamar McKay testified in early May.

Drilling crews were grinding ever deeper to build the
relief wells that are the best hope of stopping the massive oil leak at
the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The crew of Transocean Ltd.'s
Development Driller II finished pouring cement to firm up a section of
metal casing lining one of two relief wells. BP and government officials
say the wells are the best option for cutting off the gusher that has
spilled as much as 125 million gallons into the Gulf since the Deepwater
Horizon exploded.

The panel appointed by
President Barack Obama to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has
yet to meet, yet some panel members are making their views known, with
one member blogging about it regularly. Only one of the seven
commissioners, the dean of Harvard's engineering and applied sciences
school, has a prominent engineering background -- but it's in optics and
physics. Another is an environmental scientist with expertise in coastal
areas and the after effects of oil spills. Both are praised by other
scientists. The five other commissioners are experts in policy and
management. The White House said the commission will focus on the
government's "too cozy" relationship with the oil industry.
Environmental activist Frances Beinecke on May 27 blogged about
"America's addiction to oil." Two other commissioners also have gone
public to urge bans on drilling.

The head of the new office
set up to handle damage claims for the Gulf oil spill is pledging that
all eligible and legitimate claims will be paid -- and paid promptly. Ken
Feinberg, who's the chief of the Independent Claims Facility, wants
victims to come forward, file a claim for an emergency payment and then
work with the office to come up with a claims program. Last week BP
agreed to President Barack Obama's request for a $20 billion
compensation fund. Speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Feinberg
dismissed one Republican's description of the fund as a "shakedown." He
said he's been getting bipartisan advice and that it doesn't help to
"politicize" the program.

Louisiana's Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries says the shrimp catch in May could be the
second-worst on record because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The
Courier newspaper in Houma, La., says reasons cited include areas closed
because of the spill and some shrimpers' decisions to clean up oil
instead of trawling. Biologist Marty Bourgeois says preliminary figures
show 4.1 million pounds of headless shrimp landed last month. That's
two-thirds below last year's May catch of 17.4 million pounds.